To ask, if your child has a Toniebox / Yoto player …

[knockitonthetable]

Has it reduced screen time? It seems to be the main advantage to them but I’m not sure it’s actually worked in our case …

YABU yes it has

YANBU no

Ours has been a life saver for bedtime, I think lots of families use it that way too. Our daughter went from never sleeping through so getting herself to sleep without us in the room, and if she woke, toniebox on, straight back to sleep. It was amazing!! She does also play with it & the characters during the day.

We have both, I can't answer on the screen time as screen time isn't an issue here (registered blind), our biggest thing has been that the Yoto has improved sleep as the sleep radio plays all night and helps resettle him. The Tonie is used more in the day for stories whereas the Yoto in the day is used for hospital appointments etc as it's much more portable (we have the mini version).

Why wasn't it? I think they're great

We have a yoto player. They are great, out now 7 year old loves it.

DS (7) has had a yoto for about 4/5 years and now has the mini for travel they get used every day, bedtime, podcasts, stories while he's drawing , doing Lego etc. He doesn't have any screen time at all Monday to Friday and an hour or two max at weekends some of which is family viewing like gladiators or masked singer. I think having it from a young age helped to not get into screen time habits in the first place. We're away for half term and the mini will be coming with us.

Yes definitely reduced screen time, dd is less into it but DS will pop a story on and potter around with lego for HOURS

I’m asking as I know a lot of parents like it for sleep but not really an issue here (I’m lucky I know) just that my DD isn’t really into it; I’ve tried but she doesn’t seem interested. Ds is a bit more so but given the choice between Tonies and TV, Tonies are the poor relation!

Not for us, but reading others comments maybe our kids are too young to have that impact yet. They struggle to follow the story for too long. They prefer songs for now.

I don’t use the Tonie box as a tool to reduce screen time, I’m happy with the amount of of time I allow my child to watch tv and the Tonie box is a toy for a different purpose imo.
I’m not sure why you would spend hundreds of pounds “to reduce screen time” when you could just literally reduce the screen time.

What’s the age? It hasn’t reduced screen time for my DD, but I think because she’s only 2, I got a toniebox a bit young. I keep her screen time fairly limited, but I can guarantee she’d abandon the toniebox if I turned the tv on. Im hopeful as she gets older she’ll follow the songs/stories more and find it more entertaining? Now she mostly just likes this nursery rhyme tonie we have, and even then, she only recognises Wind The Bobbin Up,

Mine have the Yoto and yes, definitely. They love it, especially music cards during the day.

Perhaps you didn’t mean it, but this sounds really adversarial.

That said, I don’t actually disagree, but it’s a few things. For one thing, a lot of people use phones / tablets on car journeys and so on. We don’t as it happens but Tonies or a Yoto is a good alternative. Then there’s those early mornings - I can say to ds to go and listen to the toniebox for a bit while I wake up. And some days when you’re hanging around the house. I guess I’m just wondering if dd is a bit too young, trying to get her a bit more into it.

We got a Tonie box for DS when he was 3. He’s 4 now and has barely used it.

Tried at bedtime, day time etc…

Just constantly changes the characters til I get a twitch and end up turning it off.

@Lucy211 yes I’m wondering if dd is a bit young …

The other annoyance is a lot of the Tonies are based on films or TV shows so they have to be familiar with the TV version!

@DancingintheSpoonlight dd does that, she likes playing with the characters!

For long car journeys, yes. They’ll happily sit with their yotos if we’re driving to France for example. But at home, they’d rather have an iPad

It’s just the truth though. Each Tonie is £12-15 one you go past the initial bundle, most children are not going to be engaged in the same small handful of stories 200 times so you do need to build a collection and it ends up overall being quite expensive.
If the goal is to reduce screen time it’s a stupid purchase imo.
If the goal is to promote more independent play, or longer concentration then it’s more effective for that.
How old is your child?
The Tonie is a weird one because for a long time kids are too young, people buy them for young babies and toddlers and it’s not overly suitable. Then before long they out grow the babyish character play.

Ours is used mostly overnight and in the car. Unfortunately there is too much tv and iPad use in the house. But we’ve never used iPads in restaurants or in the car, and the Yoto definitely works for us in those situations.

Just bought another one for my younger child for his second birthday!

re the cost, actually some children will just listen to the same few stories over and over (even if you spend hundreds on loads of cards!) - ask me how I know 😂 and on the whole you can resell unwanted cards for not much less than new, they hold value really well compared to other toys.

I wouldn't say that reducing screen time is the main advantage. Listening to a wide variety of stories/books/content is one of the best ways to improve their vocabulary, language and comprehension skills. This is one of the reasons I think the yoto is the better option as the variety of content is huge.

I haven't intentionally used it as a way to reduce screen time. If DS caught wind of me trying to do that he would probably resent it and not enjoy it as much. Im sure it has reduced screen time as a by product though.

I never got ours with the intention of replacing screen time. We have had ours about 4 years now so when younger screen time was less of an issue and it's only in the last 18 months my kids have turned more to screens (probably as they are older now). The yotos are still used every day though at bed time..

One of the problems is the popular stories are Julia Donaldson (of course) but the readings of them for both the Tonie and Yoto are just utterly wretched. The Gruffalo makes me want to gouge my eyes out; she screams the story. No idea how they managed to butcher such a classic, tbh!

I wouldn’t say so but they do make bedtimes easier I think. DD1(7) has been listening to her Yoto in bed since 7pm tonight, her bedtime isn’t till now but she just wanted to listen to her book so went to bed early! DD2 (3) listens to her Toniebox every night and if she wakes in the night she will put it back on or if she wakes too early in the morning.

Tbh the biggest thing that’s helped us almost eliminate screens midweek and hugely at weekends are board games. We have loads now, lots of cooperative ones too, and those are becoming the default activity instead of asking for TV.

Oh if you have a Yoto, the Drawalong cards are really good. They are guided drawing sessions, so the bloke tells them what to draw on their page and by the end they have a picture. There are three cards with all sorts of different themes. I sometimes suggest it to DD1 if she’s at a loose end.

Would you mind recommending some cooperative games? That sounds good!

Look at Peaceable Kingdom Games. All their stuff is co-op and for a range of ages. My 3yo loves Snug as a Bug in a Rug and they both like playing Gnomes in the Night together. They can set these up without any help too.

For slightly older (I’d say 5+ although my 3yo does play this with us but doesn’t really fully know what’s going on) kids Outfoxed is really good. There’s a couple of Minecraft board games that are co-op for older (5/6+) kids who are interested in Minecraft, Heroes of the Village and Builders and Biome.